Relational Processes Research Articles

“Big data see through you”: Sexual identifications in an age of algorithmic recommendation

On Douyin, China's domestic version of TikTok, straight users are being recommended queer content, and videos created by straight men are being recommended to queer viewers. As Douyin recommends videos based on users’ online activities (e.g., liking, sharing, or spending time watching a video) and networks (e.g., connections made on the platform), sexuality comes to be algorithmically interpreted and defined. This process differs from an understanding of gender and sexuality as more or less fixed classifications that are the result of what people register when entering a platform concerning their gender and sexual identifications. This article analyzes viewers’ and creators’ experiences and reflections on the algorithmic grouping of sexual orientation and erotic curiosity through the relational lens of configurations. Using two years of online observational data and in-depth interviews with 18 Douyin users, both straight and same-sex orientated, we found that a language-centered, semiotic approach alone cannot assist in capturing the reconfiguration of sexual identifications presently occurring in China, and most likely elsewhere. Sexual identifications are the result of a relational process in which desires (regardless of sexual orientation) and intimacy, content creation and consumption, platform vernaculars and affordances, and data and algorithms converge and clash. This process allows for an erotic curiosity that has not yet been named or normalized in language systems and therefore reconfigures how sexual identity or orientation come to be understood in relation to the ever-increasing presence of computational power.

Building models to optimize vehicle downtime in multimodal transportation

Sustainable development has become the main focus of transport policy and planning around the world. One of the practical goals when performing multimodal transportation is the optimization of logistics costs. That is, the object of research is the process of multimodal transportation. Empirical research shows that the problem of optimization of transportation costs can be solved by different methods. But the result will be similar. In the given approach, only one component of the transportation process is subject to optimization, which is the overload time. The solutions are based on the method of mass service theory and the method based on fuzzy logic. With the help of these methods, based on practical data, time parameters were calculated that characterize overloading from railway transport to road transport. The application of the method of a weakly formalized process in relation to transport logistics was considered, taking into account not only quantitative estimates but also qualitative, vaguely defined criteria that do not lend themselves to formalization, and the relationships between them. The model was developed for further research of this process, prediction of its behavior, optimization of functioning. It is based on the technology of fuzzy sets. The results obtained using the agent model based on the mass service network and the model based on fuzzy logic differ within the permissible specified limits of no more than 5–7 %. The application of fuzzy logic in the logistics of multimodal transportation is relevant and gives the best results compared to traditional methods of the theory of mass service systems. The article includes comparisons that reflect the advantages of the proposed approach. The obtained results are of a practical nature and can be used to make a decision on choosing a route and/or when transferring from one mode of transport to another

Analytical Review of the Slogans of Aurat March expressing the Right of Freedom

The aim of this research paper is to analyze the slogans of Aurat March 2020 with right of freedom of expression. The right of freedom of expression is a fundamental right guaranteed in the constitution of Pakistan 1973. This is a quantitative analysis conducted with the help of UAM Corpus Software to perform SFL analysis of the slogans. Researchers make use of Halliday's ideational meta-functions to analyze the slogans. The data has been collected through random sampling from social media and web sources. SFL transitivity analysis helps researchers keep their research relatively objective and unbiased. In depth analysis of all the processes has been conducted in the research. Results indicate that the Material Process has been used the most in the slogans which indicate actions. Relational process is also quite prominent in the results which show that slogans were meant to create a comparison between two entities. This paper paves the way for the researchers to look into PDA through the linguistic lens of SFL. Women rights is a burning issue in Pakistan which has been taken up by the marchers and their slogans have been criticized by the media and social media. This paper aims to explore the objective reason for that.

Do You Think the Painting is Finished? The Function of Correction/Conversation in Developing Painting Skills on the Example of Outdoor Painting

The aim of the article is to present the meaning of correction, i.e. the conversation accompanying the study of outdoor painting. Correction is a tool that can support and motivate to pursue artistic work, and at the same time it can introduce students to the language of visual arts. It is widely used at various levels of arts education. Art adepts in conversation with teachers / experienced artists and other painters gain declarative and procedural knowledge in the field of painting. The article uses materials from observations, conversations and interviews conducted during open-air painting sessions, addressed primarily to amateur artists and people preparing for studies. The article consists of three parts: a theoretical introduction to the subject of outdoor painting and its importance for artistic education, a methodological and empirical section, which discusses the different functions of correction, its types, and the context of the emergence of conversations about artistic progress, including an analysis of the stages of work in the open air context. It concludes with a discussion on creation as an interpersonal and relational process, an important element of which are constructive conversations about art and artistic competences.

Reframing places, communities and identities: social learning in urban experimentation

A central promise of urban experiments (UEs) is to create sites for social learning. However, research on such learning in sustainability transitions still lacks conceptual clarity and empirical evidence. This article helps to close this gap by analyzing how social learning emerges from urban experimentation. It adopts a transactional understanding of learning induced by disruptions of everyday habits and distinguishes cognitive, normative, and relational learning processes. Further, the additional dimension of socio-material learning is derived to account for changes in understanding or interpreting material realities. These concepts serve an analytical framework for a case study of two transition experiments carried out as part of the transdisciplinary research project “Dresden – City of the Future.” The two UEs strive to initiate local sustainability transitions pertaining to participatory governance of urban districts and co-creation of a livable schoolyard. The empirical results illustrate how interventions by the two UEs induced learning in the sense of changes of cognitive understandings, norms, relations among people, as well as between people and their socio-material environments. The experiments encouraged individual and collective learning and in particular the formation of collective identities and interpretations of specific places. By comparing two UEs, we further show differences in learning regarding the actor groups, namely that the majority of learning processes in the first experiment dealt with bridging the gap between prevalent routines of the school community and novel habits introduced by the initiators of the experiment. Participants of the second experiment were socio-ecologically minded from the outset and therefore fewer learning processes took place in this regard.

The Role of Pro-Environmental Behavior, Environmental Knowledge, and Eco-Labeling Perception in Relation to Travel Intention in the Hotel Industry

Due to increasing concern about climate change and its impact on the tourism sector, it is vital to understand tourists’ decision-making process in relation to staying in green accommodations. Many factors influence tourists’ decision-making process; however, little research has been conducted on examining the antecedents of travel intention in relation to the hotel industry. Accordingly, the aim of the paper was to test the relationship among three antecedents of travel intention and tourists’ intention to stay in hotels with eco-labels. This was performed on a sample of tourists staying in hotels in Adriatic Croatia from July through August 2021. A self-complete questionnaire was used for data collection. Data processing included univariate statistics, multivariate analysis, and structural equation modeling. This research provided evidence that tourists’ eco-labeling perception and pro-environmental behavior influence their travel intention, that general environmental knowledge was positively related to tourists’ pro-environmental behavior and tourists’ eco-labeling perception, and that eco-labeling influences pro-environmental behavior. By examining indirect effects, it was determined that pro-environmental behavior mediates the relationship between environmental knowledge and travel intention and that eco-labeling perception mediates the relationship between environmental knowledge and travel intention and the relationship between environmental knowledge and pro-environmental behavior. The findings suggest that tourists’ pro-environmental behavior includes different consumer cost-effective behavior-related aspects.

Ideational Meaning and Visual Aspect Relations in Virginia Allum’s Videos to Teach English for Nursing

English for Nursing (ENP) focuses on developing the need for English, which can support medical personnel's work and fulfill professional assessment needs. Learning English from many media, one of them through video, can give nursing students experience about their work in the real world by studying what the video presents. This recent study aims to explain the realization of ideational meaning and its relations to visual aspect as the semiotic systems in English for Nurses Videos. This study was a qualitative study that used discourse analysis. The data were taken from conversation text and captured images on the three videos on Virginia Allum’s YouTube channel. This study implemented multimodal analysis to observe the ideational meaning as the linguistic and visual aspects of the videos. The ideational meaning was analyzed using SFL to later look for its relationship with the visual aspect. This study found that ideational meaning and visual aspects are related to their video presentation. The type of process is dominated by 77 relational processes, 37 actors, and 11 manner as the circumstance. Visual aspects indicate the characteristics following the themes surrounding the hospital, health, and the identity of the nursing profession itself. Ideas and visuals support each other because they simultaneously provide experience to the viewer through the video being watched without the viewer doing the action themselves. This study suggested that lecturers and students can consider this study’s result to improve the use of videos as multimodal text to support teaching learning activities in English for Nursing.

Criminal Law Protection of a Child by means of Slovak Criminal Law and European Union Law

Background: The contribution is focused on current challenges in the criminal protection of children field by means of criminal law in the Slovak Republic and the European Union. The authors define the term, “child,” in the applicable law. They examine in detail the legal regulation of the child’s position as a victim, especially as a particularly vulnerable victim in criminal law. Attention is given to the victimisation process in relation to the specifics of the child. The legal regulation of criminal law in the Slovak Republic, as well as within the European Union, reflects the need for a special approach to the protection of children and youth, and adequate legal instruments are gradually being created and introduced. Methods: Legal comparison, content and functional analysis of legal acts, analysis of court decisions, historical analysis, and comparisons were used to process research data. Results and Conclusions: The current criminal law regulation of the status and protection of children and youth in the Slovak Raepublic requires regulation to effectively respond to new threats and risks, primarily associated with the increase of criminal activity against children in the virtual world. New forms of criminal activity by using computer technology and social networks are constantly increasing. Prevention and education are irreplaceable aspects of the protection of children and youth from crime. It is more effective to have a good prevention system than to deal with the consequences. Based on our research, we recommend introducing a subject focused on the prevention and intervention of crimes of a sexual nature into the education of school-age children. At the same time, we recommend continual building of specialized workplaces within law enforcement bodies in the Slovak Republic.

중국의 비즈니스 광고와 공익 광고의 동성체계(Transitivity) 연구

Objectives The purpose of this paper is to compare the transitivity of business advertising language and public service advertising language in China from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Business advertising is a genre that aims to persuade consumers and is highly embedded with consumer sensibilities, while public service advertising is a genre that best reflects the social concerns and changes of an era or country.
 Methods According to SFL, there are six types of Process Types in the transitivity: material process, mental process, relational process, existential process, behavioral process, and verbal process. By analyzing Chinese advertising language according to the differences in process types, we can identify the characteristics of business advertising, the characteristics of public service advertising, the differences between business advertising and public service advertising, and the changes in the transitivity at the level of Chinese-Korean translation. Our findings on these issues are as follows.
 Results First, business advertising is characterized by a large number of material and mental processes. In particular, mental processes are more prevalent in advertising for alcohol, beverages, and food products. Due to the nature of the industry, advertising for alcohol, beverages, and food products mainly use the senses of sight and taste to recommend products to the audience. This is likely due to the fact that business advertisements use concise language to arouse consumers' desire to buy and generate profits for companies. Second, unlike the high use of mental processes in business advertising, they are very low in public service advertising, and material processes are most prevalent in public service advertising. The prevalence of material processes in public service advertising is likely due to the fact that they are related to the interests of the people as a whole and emphasize the communication purpose of persuasion and appeal to gain the cooperation of the general public. Third, we also examined the changes in the transitivity during the translation process from Chinese to Korean. By comparing the transitivity of the original and translated advertising, we found three types of changes: addition, reduction, and conversion. Through the presentation of major cases of translation variation, we examined the characteristics of each variation and the reasons for its occurrence.
 Conclusions The systematic functional linguistic characteristics of Chinese advertising derived from the above analyses would help readers to understand the characteristics of Chinese advertising language, and may also be helpful for those who study Chinese advertising language, develop Chinese slogans, or teach Chinese slogans.

Saying something with nothing: Refusal, avoidance and resistance in participant non-response

The relational processes of dialogue in biographical storytelling extend beyond manifest tales. Untold stories of unlived experience are also composed with an audience in mind and performed as communicative acts. This paper considers how and why research participants in a Mass Observation Archive study declined to respond to a life-writing task. Drawing on the sociology of nothing, we argue that their patterns of non-response were motivated by subjective intent and constitute meaningful social action. Despite having little or nothing to say about the substantive content of the topic, these participants told us plenty about how they felt about the challenging methodological process. In their accounts, we identified three modes of disengagement: commissive refusal, omissive avoidance and ambivalent resistance. Respectively, these involved consciously dismissing the task with reference to morals and values; surface amenability masking an evasion of deeper engagement; and confused, uncertain vacillation between approach and retreat. We explore the intrapsychic and interpersonal relational dynamics at play in each of these narrative modes and consider the authorial power of saying ‘no’.

Taming the time zone: National large-scale assessments as instruments of time in the Russian Federation

Nationwide large-scale assessments (NLSA)—an example of cross-border policy mobility—manifest a proliferating means of governing formal schooling. In the Russian context, NLSA takes the form of a compulsory graduation examination called the Unified State Examinations (USE). In this article, we explore how a mobile policy instrument of the NLSA participates in the relational processes of time- and space-making in a particular federated context of Russia, and how this process intertwines with and is shaped by the presence of multiple time zones. We argue that NLSA is an instrument of time that attempts to achieve centralization of the complex federated structure of the Russian Federation. Yet, the work of the NLSA is not a smooth process in a country characterized by territorial vastness, a complex federated structure, and the existence of multiple time zones. Guided by the theory of logistical power and sociological perspectives on time, as well as empirical insights, we show how the time zones need to be tamed in order for the NLSA to exercise its centralizing role. Discursively, the time zone is introduced and publicly discussed to symbolically characterize Russia and justify political actions or their outcomes. Bureaucratically, the desire for simultaneity and synchronicity takes the form of a meticulous ordering of a sequence of actions through prescriptive documentation that regulates the NLSA. Technologically, synchronicity, simultaneity, and instantaneousness rely on and engender an expanding national infrastructure that mediates social relations and the processes of conducting the NLSA, cutting across the time zones and federal units. Based on this analysis, we propose that scholarship on policy mobility and education policy sociology at large could benefit from examining the relationship between time and education policy and governance in four intertwined ways: the time of policy, context as time, policy instruments as instruments of time, and time in policy instruments.

“A radical point of view”: The discursive construction of the political identity of student activists

Recently there has been renewed interest in the intersection of identity and epistemics in social interaction, yet epistemics has still rarely been analyzed in political identity construction. This paper combines research on identity from a sociocultural linguistic perspective with epistemics using Conversation Analysis. The focus here is on understanding how a small group of student activists construct their shared political identities through epistemic stances towards their academic majors and career goals. Through a discourse analytic study of conversational data among these activists, I demonstrate the validity of the relationality principle of identity in accounting for how identities are constructed as related to one another. Furthermore, I examine the relational process of authentication in epistemic stances to legitimate claims to knowledge regarding political and academic identities, as well as alignment of stances in building group solidarity and shared political identity.

Transitivity and Context of The Situation in The News Text

This study aims to describe the study of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) about the transitivity process system and the state of the news text situation. The source of data in this study is the news text in the Indonesian textbook published in 2021 at the junior high school /MTs class VII level. Data collection is carried out by reading and recording. This research is a descriptive research with a qualitative approach. Based on the findings and analysis of the study, several conclusions can be made. First, researchers found transitivity consists of five types of processes, namely material processes, mental processes, relational processes, verbal processes, and existential processes. Second, participants consist of recipients or clients. Third, circumcision consists of range, location, way, cause, environment, problem, role, inclusion, view. Fourth, the context of the situation consists of the terrain of discourse, the involvement of discourse, and the means of discourse.

Transitivity and Modality Analysis of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s Speeches on Handling COVID-19

Speech is one of the communication media that can be used to convey certain ideas and intentions of the speaker. The current study aims to analyze the use of transitivity and modality in Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s speeches on handling COVID-19 and interpret their meanings. Data comprises the transcripts of two speeches delivered at the media briefing on COVID-19 on 11 March 2020 and 1 April 2021 available on the World Health Organization website (www.who.int). The transcripts were then examined and evaluated using Halliday’s (1994) transitivity theory and Halliday's (1994) and Lock’s (1996) modality theories. The results reveal that the speeches made use of material, relational, mental, behavioral, verbal, and existential processes of transitivity, as well as potentiality/ability, obligation, usuality, inclination, and probability of modality. Depending on the contexts of speech, the use of transitivity and modality indicates certain interpretations of meaning. Moreover, this study contributes best practices to health socialization during the pandemic and gives a great impact on the public’s better understanding of how to properly handle COVID-19.

Data protection: an analysis of the principle of purpose

The General Data Protection Law – LGPD strengthened the protection of personal information at the national level and equated it with international legal discipline. Inspired by the General Data Protection Regulation – GDPR, the LGPD establishes the principle of purpose as one of the keys to understanding it. In the search to better reflect on the performance of the principle of purpose in the context of the General Data Protection Law – LGPD, through a qualitative and revisional approach, this article aimed to present some reflections on the importance of the principle of purpose in the application of the LGPD. From the theory of the principles of Humberto Ávila it was found that the principle of purpose goes beyond the boundaries of norm of orientation to constitute an instrument of delimitation and action in the search for the protection of personal data in the context of contemporary life, directing the LGPD to new horizons regarding the relational process of personal rights of a fundamental nature and the purpose as a principle.

Where are low-carbon places made? Conceptualising and studying infrastructure junctions and the power geometries of low-carbon place-making

ABSTRACT The making of low-carbon places is crucial for achieving decarbonisation, but where are such places made? In extending and combining existing research and ideas, the authors take electricity networks as their starting point to study what they term three ‘infrastructure junctions’, which are places where various practices and processes, with material, spatial, and temporal features, collide and combine in ways that shape the power geometries of low-carbon place-making. The authors find that the junctions reveal the conflictual and consensual dimensions of low-carbon transitions and how these features shape and are shaped by the ordering and management of networked hardware. Some features are shared, such as an overarching faith in large-scale provision and unabated demand, whereas others are more unique and rooted in specific contextual realities. Such insights support attempts to assess, steer, and accelerate low-carbon place-making as a relational process that is manifest and mediated through infrastructure. The authors conclude that infrastructure junctions offer ripe grounds to examine where, how, when, and for whom low-carbon places are in the making.

Exploration of Existing Integrated Mental Health and Addictions Care Services for Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

Due to the persistent impacts of colonialism, Indigenous peoples of Canada face disproportionate rates of mental health and substance use disorders, which are often insufficiently addressed by Eurocentric 'mainstream' mental health and addiction services. The need to better address Indigenous mental health has led to Indigenous mental health integrated care (hereafter integrated care): programs using both Indigenous and Western practices in their care delivery. This research describes the common lessons, disjunctures, and solutions experienced by existing integrated care programs for Indigenous adults across Canada. It reveals the best practices of integrated care for programs, and contributes to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's Calls to Action #20 and #22. This study, co-designed by an Indigenous Knowledge Keeper and Practitioner, explores the programs' relational processes through interviews with key informants. The data was analyzed in consultation with Indigenous collaborators to highlight Indigenous values and interpretations, and knowledge co-production. In highlighting the complexity of integrated care, study results show the lessons of 'Real Commitment to Communities and Community Involvement,' and tensions and disjunctures of 'Culture as Healing,' 'People-focused vs. Practitioner-focused Programs,' 'Community-oriented vs. Individual-oriented Programs,' and 'Colonial Power Dynamics in Integrated Care.' The discussion explores why tensions and disjunctures exist, and suggests how to move forward using integrated care's lessons and the concept of IND-equity. Ultimately, Indigenous-led partnerships are paramount to integrated care because they leverage Indigenous knowledge and approaches to achieve health equity within integrated care.

“And Jesus began to teach”: A Transitivity Analysis of The Parable of the Sower

Religious discourse offers significant value for linguistic analysis. Functional analysis of religious texts provides a lexico-semantic approach to interpreting these discourses, though it remains underexplored in the literature. To fill this gap, the study undertook a functional analysis of the Parable of the Sower within the framework of transitivity. A mixed-method approach was employed. The text was taken from the Modern English Version (MEV) (Mark 4:1-20). The process types and their participants and the worldview of the parable were analysed within the framework. The material process type dominated the text, occurring 42 times. This was followed by the relational, mental, verbal and behavioural process types. The actor participant dominated the data. The text is highly action-oriented with the world of the text concerned with happenings, movements and tangible actions. The worldview of the parable could be described as: the nature of Christians upon receiving the word and instructions towards bearing fruits. Enthusiasm, materialism, double-minded and being stressed characterize the nature of Christians upon receiving the word while commitment, focus, steadfastness and faithfulness represent the instructions towards seed bearing. The textual and interpersonal metafunctions of language should be employed to consolidate the findings presented in this paper.

Doing leadership development through mentoring in a social learning space: the case of the inaugural Leadership Learning Lab

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe and contextualize the processes of leadership development through mentoring in a Leadership Learning Lab (“the Lab”) and to explore the implications and applications of the Lab's approach as a social learning space.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used a constructivist grounded theoretical approach and conducted semi-structured interviews with participants in the Lab, which operated out of a leadership center in a mid-sized Canadian business school.FindingsThe findings show that participants used their individual life experiences to practice leadership development through mentoring in a social learning space of prescribed uncertainty. The participants identified with becoming flexible, self-actualized leaders by learning to view their own experiences and those of their Lab partners through a leadership lens.Originality/valueThis study contributes to an understanding of the “doing” of leadership development in a social learning space and highlights three relational processes through which leadership development emerged through mentoring: rapport-building, democratization and reflection.

A Scoping Review on the Role of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Microaggressions in Substance Use

Objectives Disparities in substance use patterns and outcomes are evident among sexual and gender minority groups. Sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) microaggression, or the subtle forms of aggression experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender non-conforming/non-binary, and gender diverse individuals, has recently been explored as a mechanism that leads to negative adjustment outcomes, including substance use. In this study we examined extant literature on the association between SOGI microaggression and substance use, and the intermediary factors that mediate or moderate this relationship. Method Scoping review method was used to systematically map the literature base using database aggregators (e.g., Scopus, EBSCO) following the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. Results We found that SOGI microaggression is positively associated with substance use and negative consequences, and this relationship is mediated or moderated by motivational, relational, and identity processes. Conclusion These findings suggest the need to consider microaggression experience when working with clients of diverse sexual and gender identities. Likewise, additional studies are needed on other intermediary factors and effects of microaggression on substances other than alcohol. Most importantly, this study underscores the need for understanding the link between microaggression and substance use in greater efforts to promote sexual well-being and building competence in fostering the trifecta of sexual health, sexual rights, and sexual pleasure.